No, I am not doing a dual build.  At least not at this juncture.  I ran across this kit sometime ago and mentioned that I would be interested.  Then an e-mail, online payment, and it arrived a lot sooner than I thought it would.  I hadn't seen anyone build a Raggs to Riches kit and this one is limited (I think) not by numbers but by time and thought I'd share what was involved.

I loved the attached box note.

The contents include a bound set of instructions and very detailed at that.  The contents include some nice resin tanks a role of tape for the metal, a syringe for glue, besides the laser cut parts and strip wood.

In a quick read of what was to be done I noted that he recommends a Sherwin-Williams bonding primer.  This product requires baking it on.  Apparently, it almost eliminates any chipping.  Not sure if this will fly at my house.  Or might have to invest in a cheap metal mail box and install a 100-watt lamp for baking.  I have until summer to worry about this.

Up next is another eatery.  Everything looks fairly standard.  A copy pages of what-to-do, bracing diagram, and parts diagram.

Come close to running out of clothes pins and had to bring out the big guns to finish up.  At this stage I had added the nail holes and once the glue dried, it was off to the A&I bath.

I liked the original paint scheme, so It'll that way.  I will use Antique Iron for the main house and diner section.  Not sure if I will add an overlay of sponged-on Heritage Brick.  Trim will be Vintage White and the middle section will be Yellow Ochre. 


The kit had the diner section have a take out window on the end.  I wanted to change that to the main door ( screen door vestibule) and at the same time eliminate the long side door.  The take out window would be moved to the middle section where I envision the BBQ pit to be located.  Unfortunately, the diner siding is unique and nothing I have on hand.  I thought I might have some, but can't locate my odd ball stash.


I will use a tilt out window on the middle section, which will require filling in the opening a bit.  I was concerned over this siding as well, but finally realized that it is a card covered in corrugated siding.  Woo hoo! 


Now where is that odd ball siding?

So I bit on a FOS promotion; buy one get this free.  I'll admit it was a fun build, even if I didn't vary from the provided photo.  I was trying to get photos using a cell phone and most never were made.  I liked that the parts were level with the clapboards.  I have found some that one side was a half a board off from the adjoining side.  This made painting a waist band so much easier.  I t was a simple matter of lining up all the sides and apply tape to the back to hold everything in place.  Spray the lighter color, dry, apply more tape and spray on the darker tone. 


I did replaced the corner strip wood with corner posts as I wanted to light the interior and any corner bracing would eat up a lot of the inner space. But to do this, I need to support the adjacent slots and apply weight to the side.  So I use some craft sticks which worked slick.
One item that I absolutely love is the included gas pump.  Perfect for my era.  All I needed to add was some line for the hose.  The wire was added for handling and then trimmed down for placement.

I used some Ngineering aluminum shades and 0402 LEDs to light the inside and under the canopy.  A piece of 1/16" brass tubing to carry the wires through the base board.

The lighting looks better in person since my camera fights for focus

While I was at the recent ill-fated train show/swap meet, I had time to review all that was on my swap table.  I pulled out three old kits for further review= and pulled back two of them.  One of ths was this topic's kit.  I really don't need a vinegar works.  I need grain elevators, feed elevators, etc.  But then I took a hard look at the "vat building".  Hmmm.  Looks a bit like a grain elevator.  Eureka!
Now, if I can merge the vat building with the main building, then I'm in business.
This is the typical BiS kit, with large elevations and detail views and each build section in a separate bag.  In this one, there is a plaster base for the main building, cast vats, and an office building foundation.

It was a simple task of making copies of the plans, cut out each wall section, spray adhesive on some heavy duty card board, and make up the main building.  I did the same for the clerestory portion of the vat building to see I like the potential looks.  And I do.

So, last summer while working on the DuBois Store, I needed something to fill-in for the waiting for kit bits down time .  An internet kit pusher was having a 30% off sale, so I nosed around a bit.  I had been looking at the above two Bar Mills kits and with the sale, it was buy one get one almost free.  So I ordered. 


These two small kits had full sized elevations included in the instructions.  So, it was a simple matter of making copies and gluing them on some stiff cardboard to make a mock up of what I was looking for.  A bit of fiddling and I found it.   I will rename the new structure JAKS after a buddy of mine who, at one time, owned the company.  I did have to reverse the Jacks front as the door needed to be on the left.  Luckily, the part was reversible.  I just needed to make a new tar paper covering as the original part was cut on adhesive stock and carve in some boards where the paper was torn.

It was a simple matter of making a dock deck from scribed wood.  I added deck joists full length only where needed to keep the deck straight.  I use 1/8" spacers which also help keeping the 2x10 material vertical

Time for a new adventure.  I bought this some time ago as DuBois is a family name.  So, finally decided to give it a go.
Jan built this in N-scale, mine is HO.  When I first opened the box, I thought something is missing.  Big box.  Not a lot of stuff.  A single piece of tissue paper for something.  Can't be padding.

Anyway, a bunch of lap siding with windows pre-cut out.  Some plain sheets of stuff and a lot of peel-and-stick odds and ends.  Oh look rolled roofing and thick plastic sheets for shingles?  Loos like brick.  No.  They are shingles.

Hmmm, first floor is split and must be spliced to fit.  Me no likey.  But it's understandable why it was done this way.  I'll just need to be careful how this is going to work.

I found that I needed a tiny table saw for scratchbuilding.  It seems that there wasn't a lot out there and I didn't anything fancy.  So after looking around, I decided on the Proxxon KS115.
I have found that ripping material was a pain.  The rip fence and the blade are not parallel.  It binds up when the material gets above the spindle.  It works better when the cut gets to the splitter. 

I have filed the end of the knob bolt and the insides of the rip fence hoping to improve it's squareness (?) to the table edge.  Meh. 

Anyone else have this problem?  And if so, how did you fix it.  The blade is so small trying to see if the motor assembly is square is problematic.  And I don't see any adjustment.  Maybe I'll just have to stick with the carbide blade as it is thicker.

All my past builds have been, more or less, have been for the railroad, in order of appearance and placement.  The mid-point of the railroad is Clinton Mo.  The Frisco depot is located off a dead end spur, along with Clearfield Cheese Company processing plant.

I have access to old Sanborn Maps which told me dimensions and construction, but not much more.  The most current one was from 1918.  From it I know height and construction. 


Then, someone ran across Vintage Aerials.  And eureka, it had a photo of the plant.  And it had a barrel roof with a clerestory to boot.  Even though the photo was from 1988. it contained a wealth of knowledge.   On a regular basis, I conducted a internet search for Clearfield Cheese Clinton Missouri and never got much back.  Early on, I got a sales ad for a patch, which will be used for signage, but mainly bupkis.  Then, from another search, resulted in an undated photo for the Clinton Daily Democrat (local paper) showing the back side.  Someone may be able to get an about date fro the vehicles. 


So, now armed with enough information, I can start the scratch building of this industry.  Granted it has to be shortened and pares way down, but I can capture the flavor.  First up, the production building.


I don't do CAD, so it was old fashion ruler and pencil.  I found that a 10" roof radius look decent for the barrel roof.  I have a Monster Model Model Works Clerestory roof kit, so that will fix the length.  I'll use Tichy masonry windows and doors.  The middle of last month I ordered the windows and doors from a shop in Illlinois and they haven't even mailed them yet.  So, I did a order direct with Tichy this morning and they already have been sent out. 


I'm using Monster Model Works concrete block sheet.  I was nervous in cutting the 1/8" thick material, but the trammel that I'm using has a cutting point and it easily marked the radii so that the final cut could be made with a new X-Acto blade.  I felt that I needed to have some internal bulkheads, so I made these from 3/16" foam core board.  I replaced the cutting blade with the pencil, and used an X-Acto saw to cut the curve.  It was surprisingly quick.

I seem to have been buying more of the small paint bottles and needed storage arrangement that would fit in a specific area.  I ran across this 72 bottle rack for about $30 out of Tennessee.  The kit has no instructions, so one has to follow and online tutorial.  It took about 15 minutes from a stack of pieces to a finished rack.  I don't know much about laser cutting, but the cut area look like and smell like charcoal.  It fit my area perfectly, but I should have realized that it isn't illuminated very well.  So that will be an issue.

It came in a padded envelope with no issues from Ironheart Artisans.

Woo hoo another fresh start.

Bar Mills boxes are kinds cool in that they include a basic scale ruler on the box flap.  Of course, I didn't get it in shot.  But attached are the box and contents photos.  The brown strip is to be corrugated metal.  We'll see.

Walls are aged lap siding.  The lap is not uniform.

Instructions are basic, but with good photos and parts notations.  I do like the included photos of the kit builds by others.  Something to get the modification juices going.

I am looking at trying to put this little bugger together.  However, I found that my set of instructions are mixed.  I have a full set that goes from preamble through step 21, but these appear to be basic.  Then there is another set that begins with the last paragraph of step 11 through step 29.  Two different sets of detail sheets using the same detail numbers, but for different items. 


Anyone have a full set of instructions for EHD-201a?  I'm guessing it would go straight through through steps 29 with different detail sheets.  There are two kit versions, a and b.  The main difference is the "a" kit has 125 castings while the "b" kit has 41.

Time to work on a family compound.  This little building will be perfect (I hope) to be front and center.

The kit I bought was on special, so I ordered it with both the interior and the motorized rocking chair.

This will be a break for me, as these instructions are also illustrated.  Something new for me lately.

Kit contents.  A decent amount of different woods and a small package of resin parts for the chimney and flue.  I don't think that I have built a kit with a minimal amount of strip wood to deal with.

My Sawpit Store still needs a bar b q operation and I have trying to think on how to add one.  Since I am very poor on original thought, I needed a starting point.  There isn't much out there to get, so I continued to go through my kit cache.  Buried on the bottom was this little Timberline kit.  Back in the day it cost a whole $5.95.  So, let's see how this goes.

The instructions consist of a single page.  One front elevation and one side elevation.  That's it.  The numbers on the elevations refer to the construction step.  No list of materials, so I started, by reading though, making note of wood strip sizes, and their dimensions in decimal form.  All wood parts got a dip in A&I.

Wood parts have crude die cut marks for doors and windows.  The envelopes contain Campbell shingle strips.  I'll need to replace the one wall that has the bow window and door and make a new one to replace the window wall of the studio.

Strip wood needed a couple of passes through steel wool to remove splinters.  Roof cards were stained by the strip wood.  White areas were covered by a large piece of window acetate. 


They did provide material for a foundation, but this will be replace by RSLaser foundation sticks.

Buckle up.  This could be a rocky ride.

On to the next big adventure.   While waiting for material to reorganize my paints, I need a project that wouldn't need a lot of paint.  So here I am with the Grain Elevator kit.  For those not all familiar, but back in the day, the last set of digits on the kit box was the retail price.  In this case a whole $17.95 or about %40 in today's dollars.

First the requisite box and contents.  Four bags of section specific parts, a bunch of strip wood, instructions, several pages of templates, and cardboard roof stock.  I won't be using the included sign, although they provide instructions on how one can hand paint it on instead.

I would like to know if anyone here or if anyone knows of somebody who has Lake Junction Models Ozark Cafe kit?  I am needing the instructions and a list of the kit contents.

I bough as couple kit a number of years ago right after Bill's place caught on fire.  He had kit parts but lost the computer and instructions to the flames.  But now it appears I'm short several parts as well.

Well, the siren calls were overwhelming and I just had to dig into it.  Another misadventure begins.

Nice set of instructions although not in a decent sequence.  The color photos are a must and greatly appreciated.

Inside were three thick plastic bags of parts.  Generally organized by wood type, one bag had most of the wall sections.   Another had a ton of laserboard(?) parts.  They did provide a nice set of drawings to indicate parts on each set of laser cut parts as well as individual parts.  I started by labeling each part.  Then it was a matter of placing all related parts into bags or plastic containers.

Of all the loose parts, only one was broken.  I was lucky to find 3 of 4 parts, and glue it back together.

As most already know, my first try at static grass application was a disaster.  I had a old railroad buddy came down to my area and stopped by for a visit.  He does a lot of scenery work on various layouts in KC, and thought perhaps it was the use of Woodland Scenic's material. 

Then I got looking at my WWS applicator and noticed there is no wire to the screen as I have seen on some others.

So now for my question, for those who have successfully applied static grass, what unit do you use and does it have a wire to the metal screen?

Since the Highline goes through the bible belt, I felt I needed a backwoods church or two.  I already had a Blair Line Church which looks a lot like my Walthers Cottage Grove Church, which resembles my Timberline Church at Fairplay.  I was perusing FOS's site and noticed the chaple and cemetary kit.  Voila!  I added the cemetery extension kit as well.
So the typical box contents.  It took me a while to realize that the bracing diagram was from the front, kinda like an xray.  And yes, this is my first and only FOS kit.  I messed up and didn't get a freebie with it, but oh well.
The bracing diagram has the stained glass windows and what is shown is a scanned copy.  That is why there is a ruler on the bottom.

IN the next to last photo, the thick brown laser cut board also doubles as the foundation sections.  Remove the laser cut parts and the three rectangular remaining pieces form the foundation,  Very clever.
The last section shows the tombstones.  Some with names, some not.  But luckily any dates fit well within my era.

With the Saw Pit Store dirt drying (I seem to spend a lot of tie waiting for stuf to dry) I started my next needed structure - a small gas station.  The Woodland Scenics metal gas station wasn't an option at this point and JL Innovative Brownies Northside Service was a bit big.  So Bar Mills it is.  That and since Postalkarl provided the inspiration, it is a no brainer.
So first up the box and contents.  Whoa.  Not a lot of strip wood, that could be a good sign.  Good looking laser cut parts, metal casting, plastic windows and doors.  You know, the usual suspects.  One thing that is different is the roofing.  Roller roofing with nail holes.  Hmmm.  Also included are a handful of very good looking signage.


First thing was to clean all the metal and plastic bits with files and LAs Awesome Cleaner before they got a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner.

Next up was checking the building sides for square.  And they were,  Just needed a little sanding to get rid of the attachment nubbins.  They do talk about bracing, I didn't see any that were included.  No biggie.  I dug out some 1/8x1/8 but noticed the close fit to door and window openings.  Hmmm.  Could be a problem down the road, but I'll glue it all up and check out the fit tomorrow.  Better to check and remediate at this stage than later.  I also added bracing on the other walls, even though the instructions didn't mention it.

This little kit has been staring me in the face for the past several months and time to scratch the itch.  That and with a new knee now scheduled for the end of the month, I'll need something fairly straight forward.
Single sheet of instructions with illustrations on the back.  Die cut opening guidelines, but final cut is on me.  Tape on the backside is an absolute must.  A small handful of color coded strip wood. plastic and metal parts.
Interesting rolled paper roofing and a ton of signs.

Come to find out that Sawpit exists in Colorado.  At one time it was a whistle-stop on the RGS.  The original store is long gone, but there is a new version of it there today.  The owner has a wicked sense of humor if his Facebook sign postings are any measure.  The now offer bar b q where they do the porkin' and you do the forkin'.  Sooooo, it would make sense for my version to have a bar b q shack on the premise, especially set in the backwoods of Missouri.  The kit has a covered area on one side and some tulle that could make a nice little eating area.  Our local  burger joint has something similar.
The openings have been cut out and bracing added and let set over nite.